@same,
I can’t tell for sure. My bro in law flew out of a lot of bases over the years, Guam may have been one but never from a long term deployment. I know his general mission was to carry nuclear armaments which was converted over during the war. He would literally fly missions to Vietnam and be back for dinner in the US in just a matter of a day or so. Because I was assigned to a refueling/ fighter wing, our conversations would often center around his longer missions when we did get a chance to talk. His varied because of his wing’s different responsibilities. They tended to rotate planes in and out of the war zone.
I will say one thing. He hated commercial airlines, partly because of his love for the plane he flew and party for the maintenance it always got. According to him, he was totally spoiled by flying the plane then climbing into the commercial jets with what he saw was poor maintenance practices compared to what they got. He kept his license active for many years and would rather fly himself anywhere then take a commercial flight. For a long time he was hounded by the industry to fly commercially but would never do it. That was just him and his experience with B52s. The absolute " greatest plane ever made " according to him.
Had to be G models. The H models were kept in the states in nuclear configuration. The bellies of the G models were converted with racks for 750 pounders. He would have been pounding the Ho Chi Ming trail in Cambodia and Laos.
I agree that it was a great plane. But oh, those SR-71’s!!!
When I was in college we watched such movies as “Strategic Air Command” with Jimmy Stewart and June Allison, or “Bombers B-52” with Rock Hudson and an English actress. That seems another era, but those tough old machines are still flying.
Singer treadle sewing machines. Thousands of them are still in daily use, many of them upwards of 80 to 100 years old by now, and still in good working condition. They were simple, durable, well made and downright artistically attractive. They also are easier to precisely control the speed and feed than electric sewing machines as well as being rather fun to operate.
Love the treadle sewing machine idea.
My mom was a home economics teacher and found too many kids expect that , because it’s a ‘‘machine’’, the sewing machine was supposed to get it right, for you.
But learning on a treadle machine puts all of the function in your personal control , ESPECIALLY the availability of ‘‘slown and easy’’ for a beginner.
Later on, the ‘‘slow and easy’’ was paramount for complex designs with lots of curves and switch backs.
Somewhere, a few years ago, I saw a picture of a B52 with 3 guys standing infront of it. The oldest, grandpa, had flown it when it was brand new. The middle, dad, flew it in the '70s, and the youngest, the “kid” got a chance to fly it before it was retired as part of the SALT treaty, when it was broken up.
3 generations of air force men flew the same plane. Pretty cool.
@ken green: Exactly! It’s possible to convert a modern electric sewing machine to treadle or buy a new machine designed to be used as treadle power, but they look boringly plastic blah compared to the durable beauty of the old heavy cast metal machines. Singer is the best known of the treadle machines but there were several other equally durable quality treadle machines. Don’t get me wrong, the computerized modern sewing machines, especially the sergers, can do some quite intricate, detailed work such as embroidery in a fraction of the time and effort of hand sewing or the limited stitches of the old treadle machines. But someone who knows what they are doing can still turn out some rather amazing construction from a treadle machine.
Re: outstanding aircraft that have lasted for decades such as the DC3 and B52
Since those and, I assume, a few other plane designs have proven so durable and practical, why not take the basic designs of those and essentially upgrade the design to modern design based on the original? I’m asking from ignorance, as I know nothing about the design, manufacture, maintenance and protocols for aircraft.
Was at the big celebration at Grand Forks AFB for the first in air refueling of a buff, so they could do a practice bombing run in Africa I believe. Living on an AFB, they had flashing red lights at the intersections, so if on full alert, you pulled over to let mission essential personnel get to the planes and load warheads, more alerts than one would think, the greatest part was the air show, had acrobatic helicopters , 4 of them flying towards eachother then peeling off in near 360 degree loops, then an f 16 flying in at 450 mph, pulling a 180, full afterburner and landing on the runway, my numbers are only recollection, so forgive me if I am in error.
I also love the B-52G and the B1-B. What I would love to experience again is a 1965 Cushman Silver Eagle scooter. I owned a couple of different ones right before they were discontinued.
The Buff was something they got right,the old A-12 was another machine that was pretty close to perfect with what they done with it(read the real history of Area 51) dont bring this up,but an A-10 or a Skyraider are machines that that ground pounders love-The Air Force doesnt much care for Coin aircraft,but they dont want the Army to have em either,so it goes.I love old machines that were constructed from metal-Kevin
While I’m not an aircraft guy, and have no flying experience, I know the B-1B is a magnificent aircraft, and had some state of the art features, when it was “introduced”
I put introduced in parentheses, because Carter canceled the original B-1. I read that the B-1B, while similar looking, is pretty much a different aircraft.
Years later, Carter said that canceling the B-1 was one of the hardest decisions he ever made.
While I have mixed feelings about Reagan, I believe he made the right decision by rolling out the B-1B
@same
The greatness in the b52 was in the durability and abuse they took. Then pilots in his squadron really appreciated how tough they were and how well they still flew damaged.
Anyone interested should check out the Politics and intrigue on the post WW2 'flying wing" vs pencil fuselage bombers(sorry I dont have a link),makes you think and check out the Horten Brothers and Roswell connection-Kevin
@wentwest …I know the earlier Cushman’s were underpowered. The '64 and '65 Silver Eagles had more powerful aluminum engines and that’s the only ones that I owned. I “locked” the centrifugal clutch on both of mine since there was a clutch lever on the handlebars. I could outrun any Cushman in the area and smoke the rear tire at will. Most people thought I had done something to the engine to get this kind of performance but it was just a matter of eliminating the weak link on the scooter…the centrifugal clutch. It would also outrun most Honda bikes at the time except for the 305 Scrambler.
Good question, marnet.
While those were great aircraft, the DC3 was greatly overdesigned and to do so in today’s world would be cost prohibitive. An aircraft that overdesigned would not only be expensive to build, but also expensive to fly. With modern design technology, a far lighter, faster, more fuel efficient aircraft could be designed to serve the same purpose.
As to the B52, it was designed in a different era to meet a type of warfare that has essentially become obsolete. In the '50s, fighting a war meant total destruction, meaning saturation bombing or atomic bombs, which needed to be delivered via an aircraft. Collateral damage was considered a cost of war. Today war is fought with precision strikes taking out the key command locations and specific equipment. We can now put a “smart weapon” right through the window of an adversary’s command post window without bombing out an entire town, and without putting any of our troops in harms way.
In short, design technology advances and warfare changes have advanced and made these types of designs obsolete. Even the SR-71, IMHO the most gorgeous aircraft ever, quickly became obsolete. We now have satellites continuously orbiting the earth that can give us far more reconnaissance information than an SR-71 could… and with no need for an aircrew.
The future… neigh, the PRESENT… is in unmanned aircraft. Even cargo will eventually be flown in unmanned barges. No need for compression, no need to waste space and load on aircrews, no risk when delivering cargo to combat zones.
@mountainbike Yes. that blackbird was some plane! Too bad it sat on the gound being maintained at least twice as long as it did flying. That’s poor “availability” in military terms.